To our Spring Summer 2011

Glasgow the Caring City Charity SC029090
119 Carmunnock Road
Cathcart
Glasgow. G44 5UW
Newsletter Spring/Summer 2011
www.glasgowthecaringcity.com [email protected]
T h e C a r i n g C o m m u n i t y Fo r C h i l d r e n I n C r i s i s
Scottish Learning Centre For Haiti
P
rimary School Children in Haiti will soon be
reading books by classic Scottish authors
such as Robert Louis Stevenson and Robert Burns
as part of our initiative asking some of Scotland’s
leading politicians to select their favourite books
to fill the library shelves of the Good Samaritan
School, recently rebuilt with help from Glasgow
the Caring City.
Leaders of all major political parties at Holyrood
have united to support the Burns Day book
campaign which will see their Scottish literature
donations placed in The Caledonian Room of our
newly rebuilt Haitian primary school.
We helped to build the Good Samaritan School in
Cite Soleil after it was badly damaged during the
earthquake, which struck and devastated Haiti
12 months ago. The Caledonian Room provides a
central link between the children of Scotland and
Haiti and allows Haitians to explore Scotland’s
language, culture and history - now enhanced by
the cross-party book donations from MSPs.
First Minister Alex Salmond, who was one of the
politicians present, chose to donate ‘A Biography
of Robert Burns’ and said, “One year on from
the Haitian earthquake, the scale of the disaster
remains immense and I hope this small gift
demonstrates Scotland’s friendship and support
for the people of Haiti.
Alex Salmond and colleagues proudly
display their favourite Scottish books
“The Scottish Government supported the work
of charities such as Glasgow The Caring City in
the aftermath of the disaster, as they provided
shelter, food, water and medical care for those
living in terrible conditions.
“However, there is still an enormous amount
of work to be done. That’s why the valuable
contribution of charities such as Glasgow The
Caring City and the support of the people of
Scotland continues to remain so important.”
Continues on Page 2...
Local News
International
Features
Give a Kid a Goal
Aiding Japan’s Recovery
The Life of a bar of soap
Since 2002 Glasgow the
Caring City has worked with
Soapworks Ltd to provide over
800 tonnes of soap to help
millions of children in some of
the poorest regions in Africa...
Here in Scotland valuable work
is also being delivered for the
benefit of young people. The
Give a Kid a Goal project is our
ongoing initiative to promote
local and global affairs...
Continues on page 5...
Go to page 5...
Continues on page 4...
1
Editorial:
Rev.
Neil
Galbraith
Founder of Glasgow the Caring City: [email protected]
Welcome to the third edition of the Glasgow the
Caring City newsletter. In this edition we look at the
continuing efforts of Glasgow the Caring City and
our partner organisations in helping children living in
crisis across the world as well as at home.
“Rescuing children in
crisis across the world”
times. Hopefully this newsletter will highlight some
of the many ways in which your contributions can
be translated into helping rescue children in crisis
across the world.
But it’s not all doom and gloom…
Tsunami was a word I had hoped we would never
hear again, but on that March Friday morning there
it was, this terrible dramatic act of violence rolling in
like a ferocious wild beast and claiming both life and
home from so many innocent Japanese victims. As
I’m writing this, efforts are ongoing to bring aid
and security to the East coast of Japan. With over
18,000 lives lost and countless more made homeless
it is vital that organisations like ourselves strive to
provide all the support we can to help the children
who have been left in a position of crisis by this
unspeakable tragedy. As a charity we were quick to
respond, raising hundreds of pounds to support our
partner organisation ‘Crossroads’ from Hong Kong
who are on the ground in Japan delivering much
needed aid.
In light of these increasing strains being placed
on our charity it is more important now than ever
that we have your full support. In this period of
economic crisis the harsh reality is that small
charities are being put out of business all the time. We hope that the Glaswegian generosity combined
with our status as Glasgow’s own aid agency means
that we are set to prosper during these difficult
In the midst of all this, the containers were still
being filled and sent off to their destinations of
need. As we see our projects at home and abroad
continue to thrive, our Give a Kid a Goal project is
now in 17 and Matthew’s Farm in Southern Sudan is
now approaching full self sufficiency.
Every day we continue to see children rising from
poverty locally here in Scotland and internationally.
We see great examples of education, support and
sustainability in all of the projects that we engage
with. Remember, all of this is funded by you – it’s
not about Glasgow the Caring City acting alone.
It’s about our organisation acting on your behalf,
providing Glasgow with a voice that ultimately saves
lives.
Thank you for your continued support and thanks
also to the team for all the work they undertake to
assist the poorest in society, without them we would
not be Glasgow the Caring City.
Rev. Neil Galbraith CEO and Founder
[email protected]
01416374168
Good News for Good Samaritan School
with its vivid description of the landscape of [Scotland’s]
Northeast, our own place in the natural world.”
Scottish Conservative leader, Annabel Goldie picked
‘The Lore of Scotland’ for her donation and noted
with pride that, “Scotland and Haiti are countries
with an oral tradition blending history, legend, folk
tales and lore. I have chosen The Lore of Scotland: A
Guide to Scottish Legend, a book which encapsulates
a rich tapestry of these ancient tales which are at the
heart of Scottish culture to excite the imagination
and enthusiasm of people half a world away.
Glasgow the Caring City’s CEO, Rev. Neil
Galbraith meets First Minister Alex Salmond
...Continued from front page
Other book donations to the Caledonian Room in the new
Haitian school included Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s ‘A Scots
Quair’ from Scottish Labour leader, Iain Gray, who praised
his choice as “ultimately a celebration of humanity and,
2
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, Tavish Scott, gave
‘Treasure Island’ to the cause – one of Robert Louis
Stevenson’s best-known and most influential novels.
It is hoped that these donations will not only help
establish a valuable cultural link between the children of
Haiti and Scotland but provide inspiration for generations
to come as Haitains continue to rebuild their society.
WHAT WE DO...
WHAT YOU CAN DO...
Our Cause:
Give Resources:
As a charity, we are actively involved in a wide
range of causes including disaster relief, global
education and improving nutrition levels and
hygiene standards for children across the world.
This work requires a lot of time and resources
and is largely dependent upon the generosity of
the Scottish people.
In order to carry out our work effectively, we are
very flexible in the types of donations we can
use to pursue our goals. From the public, we
can accept any unwanted goods or machinery,
clothes or old textiles and of course cash gifts.
By giving resources, you can help us to save
lives. Visit www.glasgowthecaringcity.com for
information on how to donate.
Use Our Textile Recycling Points
Since we started as a charity in 1999, we have
converted over 250,000 items of unwanted
clothing into vital resources for those living in
poverty in the aftermath of a disaster. Warm
clothes can act as a lifeline for children in crisis
across the world. Over the years we have sent
crates packed with clothing to Haiti, Sudan,
Burundi, Pakistan and South Africa, protecting
thousands of people from harsh winters and
post disaster chaos.
Recently, you
might have noticed
several ‘Glasgow
The Caring City’
textile recycling
points dotted
around the south
side of Glasgow.
By depositing your
old or unwanted
clothes and textiles
at these points,
you can help us
to raise revenue
while saving the
environment.
They are collected
weekly and
recycled by a third
party who give us
money for every kilo of clothes received. Not
only does this provide long-term sustenance for
our charity but it enables us to send more and
more aid packages abroad.
Shipping Gifts to Save Lives:
Donate or Volunteer
As well as clothes, we welcome any gifts of
electrical supplies or machinery and regularly
include such items in our international
shipments as they play a huge role in saving
lives. Over the last year, we have sent an
ambulance packed full of medical supplies to
Burundi, a tractor to our farming project in
Sudan and an off-road land rover to Uganda.
These essential mechanical aids enable towns
and villages across the world to transport
food, get medical attention and link with the
surrounding area.
As with any voluntary sector organization,
we always welcome cash donations and new
volunteers. Money helps us to operate on a daily
basis, providing petrol for our collection vans,
funds for our projects abroad and electricity for
our office and warehouse facilities. If you would
like to commit your time to our worthy causes,
we are always seeking new volunteers – from van
drivers to computer technicians – whatever your
skill, you can help.
Visit www.glasgowthecaringcity.com or fill in
our enclosed donation form
A child gains invaluable education at Glasgow
the Caring City’s Samaritan school in Haiti
Keeping Children Warm at Night:
3
Sustainable Land Rover Shipped to Sudan
in the midst of a particularly horrendous winter
I decided to buy myself a 4x4 to keep my young
family and I moving throughout the winter.
In mid-February, when the snow cleared and our baby
had arrived, the vehicle became semi-redundant to
us so I felt that it would certainly prove more useful
elsewhere. After much deliberation, as I loved my
Landy, I decided to donate the vehicle to Matthews
Farm as a means of moving people, and crops
between the main market towns and rural villages.
International Projects Director Ross Galbraith tells
of how his Land Rover is now helping former child
soldiers in Southern Sudan.
One of the ongoing and most successful projects
which Glasgow the Caring City has been involved in
is Matthew’s Farm. The Farm in Southern Sudan
was established in 2006 as a means of reintroducing
agricultural skills and food security to a region
destabilized by many decades of civil war.
In order to support this fantastic project I recently
donated my own Land Rover Discovery to the farming
community at Matthew’s Farm as a gift. The reason
I had the Land Rover was simple, with my wife due
to deliver our second child in February and Scotland
YOU
SAY HELLO...
George Francis
Hi, I’m George! I recently started
working at Glasgow the Caring
City as a communications intern.
I’m currently studying Political
Communications at Glasgow
uni and hope that I can bring
some of my expertise to the
role, helping drive our excellent
charity forward towards bigger
and better things.
Matt Wheavil 4
Hi! I’m Matt, I hail from
Northern Ireland and study
political
communications
at Glasgow uni. I’m very
excited to be volunteering as
a communications intern for
Glasgow the Caring City and
as well as designing this lovely
newsletter for your viewing
pleasure, I hope to help our
amazing charity reach as many
people in Scotland as possible. It’s important to realise that the Land Rover
wasn’t any ordinary vehicle and came with serious
modifications! In a fairly straightforward procedure
it was converted to run mainly on Sunflower oil and
the hope is that once in use on Matthew’s Farm the
Land Rover will be a largely self sufficient piece of
machinery as part of a ‘grow your own fuel’ initiative.
Ross’s land Rover will be used to transport people
from rural villages in order to access healthcare,
education and support services. Matthews Farm
promotes food security, training and education for
young farmers striving for a better future. Donations
such as the land Rover form part of a coordinated
programme of aid and support, designed to help
communities change their own circumstances.
Images and stories about Landy will follow in future
editions.
I SAY GOODBYE...
Tim Malseed
I started volunteering at GtCC
in February 2010, while I was
completing my master’s degree.
The role taught me an awful
lot about how the Scottish
Voluntary
sector
worked,
as well as offering a unique
insight into a small charity’s
relationship with the media.
Ross’s dedication to the
organisation is inspiring, and
he was a huge help in my
dissertation project. He was
also responsible for helping
me to find a permanent job
with a well known PR company
once I finished university. For
this, I not only thank Ross, but
would advise anyone reading
to try and help with GtCC in
whichever way they can. The
charity does so many great
things and any work with them
is highly rewarding.
“Tim volunteered for
Glasgow the Caring City
as our communications
intern for five months
and we wish him all the
best for the future.”
- Ross Galbraith
(International
development officer)
Feature: Aiding Japan’s Recovery
On Friday 11th March 2011, Japan was struck by one
of the largest Earthquakes and Tsunamis in history. At
a staggering 8.8 on the Richter scale, it is estimated to
have claimed over 18,000 lives and has left the Japanese
nation devastated by unprecedented infrastructure
damage and severe Nuclear power plant ruptures.
Glasgow the Caring City could not stand idly by as this
horrific event unfolded before our eyes without doing
something – in the midst of this massive force of nature
lay the fate of children, swept from their families,
separated temporarily or tragically, perhaps for good.
What followed amidst the images, statistics and science
was yet more baffling. The large so-called leading
agencies proceeded to do little to contribute to the
relief of suffering. Facts and hypothesis about Japan
being rich enough to cope were aired in the media while
isolated children sat cold and alone in school halls
across Japan.
Within 48 hours of the Tsunami’s impact, we responded
to a request from our International Aid network, Global
Hand, which appealed for immediate humanitarian
relief to be sent to Japan.
Together with our longstanding partners, Crossroads
Foundation (who like us are a ‘Goods in Kind’ (GiK)
organisation, providing practical and immediate aid to
those in need as well as financial resources for relief),
we established the Scotland4Japan appeal.
The Scotland4Japan appeal successfully raised several
hundred pounds. Although not a huge amount of cash, it
proved vital in funding the immediate provision of food,
water and medicine for Japanese children suffering in
the aftermath of the Tsunami.
Glasgow the Caring City CEO, Rev. Neil Galbraith,
praised these efforts by acknowledging that, “Many
Give a Kid a Goal
Continued from front page...
including promotion of the environment, citizenship
and responsibility all aimed at primary 6 and primary
7 school children. Now in its third year the Give a Kid
a Goal project has broken new ground by entering the
realms of higher education at Cardonald College where
it has been integrated into the HNC Early Education
questioned the value of aiding Japan, describing Japan
as a nation capable of helping its own people. We don’t
question this sentiment, however, clearly children in
Japan needed our help while our international partner
charities were appealing for our support.
“We are most grateful for everyone who showed their
support, particularly those who financially donated.
Glasgow the Caring City can make a difference, even in
a nation as rich as Japan, and that has been borne out
by our effective appeal for funds and practical delivery
by Crossroads Foundation.”
One month on from the disaster, more and more
organisations are launching initiatives like ours. As
our small appeal slowly but steadily grows, perhaps
the initial estimates of the scale of this disaster and
Japan’s ability to cope without external help will be
revealed as a gross miscalculation. What has become
clear is that we should not link a nation’s ability to cope
with destruction and despair to their bank balance –
lest we forget Hurricane Katrina.
and Childcare qualification. The project was deemed
a resounding success, Glasgow the Caring City’s
project coordinator Alison Loudon suggests that the
experience would “open the students’ eyes to some of
the situations they may face when teaching children”.
Senior lecturer Christine McCrosson believes the project
provided the students with “a different perspective to
children’s development” and helped raise “difficult
challenges”.
The ongoing delivery of our Give a Kid a Goal project
marks a milestone in Glasgow the Caring City’s
commitment to young people and their community.
With the expansion into further education the program
is destined to flourish, strengthening the link between
students and children in Scotland. There will be a
better understanding of the issues surrounding poverty
as endured by children in the poorest parts of the
world and the role Glasgow the Caring City plays in
addressing them.
5
The Life of a Bar of Soap
...Continued from front page
However transporting this much product many
thousands of miles from the Soapworks factory in
Glasgow to the villages of Burundi is no mean feat
and requires the hard work and dedication of a
committed team of volunteers.
Loading vital supplies of soap onto
container at our Glasgow based warehouses
until a suitable transport container is available.
Once loaded into a shipping container (PIC) along
with many other vital resources including medical
supplies, pasteurizers, clothing and spectacles
the soap is transported by rail, south to the port
of Tilbury in Essex. At this point the aid container
finally leaves the UK to be transported by ship,
South East across the Atlantic Ocean to Tanzania.
Although the container has now finally reached
Africa, the journey is far from over with a further
road trip of several thousand miles across the
African continent to complete. By the time the vital
produce reaches its destination in Burundi the trip
has taken an approximate total of seven weeks.
Despite the length of the trip and the effort
required to get these resources to where they
are most needed, it is vital that this supply chain
is maintained. The effort and dedication of
Glasgow the Caring City and its many associated
organisations help to ensure that millions of
children in the poorest parts of the world grow up
with basic levels of cleanliness and hygiene.
Regular bars of domestic soap may seem like
an everyday necessity to us living in Glasgow,
however to those in Burundi, one of Africa’s poorest
countries, it is something that most have little or
no access to. On 24th March Glasgow the Caring
City sent 14000Kg of soap on a journey half way
across the world in an attempt to ensure that future
generations of children were safe from dirt and
infection. This is the story of how that soap got
from Glasgow on the West coast of Scotland to
Burundi in Central Africa.
After production in Soapwork’s Glasgow factory the
bars of soap are transported by road to Glasgow the
Caring City’s Cathcart warehouse where it is stored
6
A child in Burundi enjoying his new bar of
Glasgow the Caring City soap
Events
M74 Charity Opening
Act of thanksgiving, hope
and remembrance
Kids Safe 2011
Looking for a great day out
and a way of raising funds
for Glasgow Caring City? Why
not sign up for an amazing
opportunity to walk the new
M74 and support Glasgow’s
leading aid agency while you’re
at it? 20,000 people will be
taking part. Contact ross@
glasgowthecaringcity.com to
register.
In 2001 Glasgow the Caring
City provided immediate
humanitarian support to New
York for the victims of 9/11,
building a powerful and valued
partnership with with the
heroes and firefighters of New
York City. Join us for a service
in memory of the many loved
ones who lost their lives so
tragically ten years ago.
A family friendly mini-music
festival in partnership with
Strathclyde Police and
Strathclyde Fire and Rescue,
in aid of children’s rights
awareness. There will be
musical performances from
Glasgow’s finest school talent,
accompanied by various stalls
and engaging presentations
from human rights groups.
Sunday 22nd May 2011
M74
All Day
Sunday 11th September 2011
Cathcart Old Parish Church
2:00pm
Tuesday 1st November 2011
Cathcart Old Parish Church
10:00am - 10:00pm
7
Football4life Gives Coaching Grant to South Africa
The purpose of the grant is to equip community
football coaches who, as well as providing sports sessions for children, also provide life skills and street
education too.
The money will buy the basics for a kits bag including
balls, cones and bibs.
Young footballers enjoy new kits in Burundi
Our Football4life sports-club style programme recently made a cash grant to our partners at Coaching
1000 in South Africa.
Speaking about the grant Glasgow the Caring City
Director and Football4life Secretary said “when you
grasp at the reality of street life and poverty in South
Africa, it makes me wonder why charities don’t do
more.
“Football4life is a fun venture focusing on sport as a
means of fundraising and delivery of education. This
investment will touch 1000 children on a daily basis
and bring around real change”.
CONTACT US
You can contact us on the following lines:
0141 634 8560
[email protected]
www.glasgowthecaringcity.com
Unit 12, Linn Park Industrial Estate
315 Drakemire Drive
Glasgow G45 9SS
Designed, created, edited and
printed in house at zero cost Every penny saved is a penny
extra for a child in crisis
Follow us on Facebook
and on Twitter @caringcitynwork
To Donate See Enclosed Form
To Join our Mailing list Email:
[email protected]
Newsletter prepared for GtCC by:
8
George Francis
Matt Wheavil
Myra Boyce
Alison Loudon
(Communications Intern)
(Communications Intern)
(Administrative Officer)
(Editorial Team)